In Your Dreams
by ForeverLily
Summary: Harry goes to sleep at the burrow and wakes in a strange place with people claiming to be his dead parents and godfather. Harry has no idea what awaits for him there. Is it all a plot to break him before they deliver him to the Dark Lord, or is something extraordinary happening? Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. That belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros.


Author's Note: Hey guys! I've been working on this fic on and off for months. I'm typing this right now because no matter how tired I am or how busy I get, I still feel this itch in my fingers to write something. Sorry about the lack of updates! I Know that I have promised to update DAT and Forever Severus but I have been working on four projects (including this one) so I'm working on bits and pieces at a time.

_**Disclaimer: **__I do not own any recognizable characters or places (J.K. Rowling owns all of those) or a line from a particular anime whose name I won't give because I want to see how many people recognize it. The only thing I own is the plot, and the French toast. No, wait, I don't own the idea for French toast either. If owned any of that stuff this wouldn't be a fan fiction now would it? Not to mention I would be rich from patenting the idea for French toast and Harry Potter! _**"Neither can live while the other survives…"**_This is property of JK Rowling, from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix._

"_**Marauders till death, brothers for eternity"-**__I don't think I own this either. I'm not sure, but I think I read this (or something similar to this) in another fan fiction. I give full credit for this line to the author who came up with it. _

Dedication: This is for my sister whose birthday is today. Happy birthday Draco'sfairmaiden!It's not next generation, but I hope that this will do until I can get a next gen up. I promise that I will put one up…eventually. Love you sis!

* * *

In Your Dreams

"Harry, it's time for breakfast!" The teenage boy opened one green eye. Then he opened the other and blinked. What was going on? A woman with fiery red hair walked into the room.

"You know, your father, Sirius, and Remus are already eating French toast. If you're lucky they might have saved you a piece." Wait a minute, who was this woman? Why was she talking about his father?

Without even a second thought he fumbled for his wand. Where was it?

"Who are you?"

Instead of being alarmed she laughed. "You and your jokes. You're so much like James!"

A joke? She thought this was a joke? Harry could begin to feel anger bubble up to the surface. There was nothing funny about the situation at all. "You have no right to disrespect my parent's memories! Your master was the one who killed them!"

"Harry! What's wrong with you? You never to speak to us like that! Are you sick? Oh, no wait, I've got it! Don't tell me you've spent all night reading again? I thought I told you to stop doing that! You know how grouchy it makes you!" Although her hands were on her hips, she had an indulgent smile on her face. Harry wasn't buying it, though, however unthreatening she may appear.

"You are not my mother! My mother died fifteen years ago because Voldemort killed her!" Harry shouted as he backed away from her, looking for an escape route.

"Harry! Don't even joke about something that serious! It's not funny." _Lily_ admonished.

"Why do you keep insisting that I'm joking? This isn't a joke! They died October 31st of the year I turned one at Godrics Hollow. They died for me so that I could live, giving me this scar." He lifted his bangs. Why was he bothering? She knew who he was.

"They died so that I would have a chance to live and defeat scum like you!" Quickly she strode across the room, ignoring his protests, and put a hand to his forehead.

"You don't feel sick."

"What do I have to do to get you people to realize that the charade is up? There's no one around, and I don't have my wand, just kill me already! That's what all of this is about isn't it?"

_Lily _gently pushed him back into bed and pulled the covers over him. "You're sick. I'm going to go get the boys; maybe they'll know what to do. We're lucky that Remus is a doctor." This time he gave up. Why bother fighting? There's nothing he could really do but wait. He couldn't leave right now. They'd catch him before he made it to the entrance, and there's no way he'd survive the drop from the window without immediate medical help. If they were going to kill him, he'd die. What other choice did he have? Besides, if Dumbledore believes that 'death is the next great adventure,' then it must be true.

She wasn't gone long before three men walked into the room. The raven haired man that looked just like him walked in with a cup of tea. The second man had longer black hair and wore a concerned look. This man was obviously Sirius, or, at least he was pretending to be him. His face was the same, but it was younger somehow. The last was an only slightly worn looking man with brown hair -Lupin's counterpart- who was brandishing a thermometer.

"You missed some spectacular French Toast kiddo. It wasn't burned in the least. I think your mother deserves a trophy!" _James_ chuckled, thinking about his usually 'charcoal enriched diet' as Sirius put.

"How are you feeling Harry," _Sirius_ asked.

"Does it matter?" He muttered. They were here to kill him off anyway.

"Does it matter? Of course it matters! You matter Harry, because you're my Godson and you're Practically Remus' too, and Lilly and James are your Parents. We love you- of course you matter!"

He scoffed. "It doesn't matter because you're going to kill me anyway…unless you want me well enough to meet the Dark Lord…that's it isn't it? You're saving me for Voldemort! You'd think you'd learn by now that I won't go down without a fight!" Harry jumped to his feet and faced them, making eye contact with each of them, ready to defend himself

All three adults stared at each other in confusion.

"Did you receive an injury last night when you boys were playing basketball?"

"Huh?" Did wizards play basketball? That's a muggle sport. The last time Dean tried to talk to Ron about one he had received nothing but blank stares and an argument about how much better Quiddich was than any muggle sport.

"How could you not remember basket ball? You're a champion at it! It takes all three of us to defeat you alone on the court."

"Why are you doing this to me?" Harry yelled, shaking.

"What's wrong with Harry, Remus?" Lilly asked, caught between going to her obviously ill son and researching his condition.

Remus put a hand on her shoulder. "Physically Harry is in perfect Health. Mentally…" He hesitated. "I'm beginning to wonder if he's lost the ability to tell fact from fiction."

"I am not insane! I got enough of this from the papers last year. I'm perfectly sane! You're the ones who…"

There was a loud crash. They looked down to see a man tired looking man in worn clothing. Harry walked closer to get a better look. It was Sirius! Not just Sirius, it looked like _his_ Sirius. The difference was obvious because he looked older. Bags lay underneath his eyes, which were ringed with purple, and his clothes, although not ragged, were worn. Sirius stood up quickly and took out his wand.

"Alright you impos…Harry? Is that you?"

Harry swallowed a lump in his throat. There was no possible way that this could be him. His godfather was dead. He knew that, but it still hurt. Although he didn't dare to let himself really believe that it could be him, he let the smallest glimmer of hope shine in his eyes, something that he could see puzzled the others. "What was the present you got me third year?" Harry shot at him.

"A Firebolt. An excellent broom if I recall…Harry, is that really you? Wait, does that mean you're dead too?" There was a strangled pause. A gentle hand touched Harry's shoulder. "Was it Voldemort?"

"I'm alright Sirius, and no, I'm not dead. At least, I don't think I'm dead, although I've got to be if you're here. I watched you die! I saw you fall through the veil!"

Sirius looked Harry over thoughtfully. "Hmm...I was under the impression that this is what happens when you die..."

The other Sirius walked up and examined his counterpart. "Who are you?"

"I'm Sirius Orion Black, and, apparently, so are you, unless you're a deatheater." Why didn't Sirius look more concerned?

When Harry's Sirius turned to face the other two occupants of the room he froze. Lily and James. This must be a trick, some cruel joke. There's no way they could be alive! What were the odds of him ever encountering the two people who he missed most even given the current circumstances? For years they had haunted his dreams, and now he finally was going to get the chance to see them...there's no way that this could possibly be real. Even he, despite what others at school may have thought, had never been _this _lucky.

"James." Sirius croaked out.

"What's going on?"

"James. It's me, Sirius! Don't you remember? Marauders 'till death, brothers for eternity?! Listen James, I fell through the veil in the Department of Mysteries and have been doing a lot of traveling and I'm here-you're here-we're all here and you're fine and everything great!" He babbled.

"It appears that they either share the same delusions or are from alternate dimensions," Remus said thoughtfully.

"How did you jump to that conclusion?" James asked. He had a point. That was sort of a large leap from mental illness.

"You can't be serious." Lilly pointed out.

"Actually, I was being sarcastic, but I do recall studying some theories while I was in University…if such a thing was possible it would explain Harry's odd behavior."

"Odd behavior? Harry, are you alright?"

"I thought they were death eaters. I mean, it's a perfectly normal conclusion after…you know."

"What's he talking about? What are deatheaters?" Both Harry and Sirius stared at them questioningly.

"You know, the dark wizard Voldemort and his followers. Do they not exist here? Voldemort doesn't exist?"

"That sounds like a name out of one of Harry's books!" The other Sirius laughed. "Voldemort, ha! What sort of name is that? Wait…did you say dark wizard? Apparently my look alike needs mental help because everybody knows that magic doesn't exist!"

Padfoot stood there not knowing what to say. Besides the lack of magic, this place looked like paradise! Remus looked healthy and so did he, and James and Lilly were _alive._ Maybe just this once fate had decided to be kind to him.

Then it occurred to them. "Where's Peter?"

"Peter who?" James asked. Sirius smiled in satisfaction. No Peter. Now things were definitely perfect.

"How do we really know that Remus is right and both of you aren't just mentally ill?"

Sirius turned towards Harry. "Do you still have your wand?"

Regretfully Harry shook his head no. "Sorry Padfoot. I must have come here when I was sleeping because I woke up in a bed."

"What about you?"

"No, I must have dropped it when Bella pushed me through the veil."

James regarded them skeptically. "Harry, if this is some sort of game, you really need to stop, it isn't funny anymore."

"Do you know how to do wandless magic? Maybe you could, I don't know, use wingardium leviosa!"

"Excellent idea Harry! I wish I could take credit for it." He stopped and looked for the lightest object in the room. He found a muggle pen and stared at it. "I might be a little bit rusty, but here it goes. Wingardium Leviosa!" The pen wriggled a bit, then lay down as if it had never been moved. "I told you I was out of practice."

"Maybe you said it wrong. I remember Hermione correcting Ron first year 'It's LeviOsa, not LeviosA.'"

"I think I know what I'm doing," Sirius scoffed before mumbling about corrected by his fifteen your old godson (who was really sixteen, but Harry didn't bother to correct him.) but tried it Harry's way anyway, and this time it hovered and inched towards James. James, Lily, and company gawked at the feather in child like wonder.

"This is…this is real?"

"Yeah, it's real," Harry responded.

"That means that you're not sick?" The concern began to drain from Lilly's expression. Now that she knew that he wasn't ill, she relaxed a bit, although not completely.

"Not unless I'm sick!" They stared at him. Sirius had the decency to look embarrassed. "Maybe I'm not the best example, but trust me, the kid's saner than most of the people I know." He looked directly at James, Remus and Lily who smiled guiltily.

"What's the verdict?" James looked to Lily.

"Why am I the one giving the verdict?"

"James is right, aren't women supposed to, I don't know…have intuition about this sort of thing?" She rolled her eyes and smacked Sirius.

"It's a _mother_ thing, not a female things Sirius. And my verdict is…we can trust them. He's still our Harry and he looked so honest this morning when he accused me of being a deatheater… He looked scared-and he wasn't running his fingers through his hair like he usually does when he's lying."

"What happened to bring you here?" The not-werewolf mused out loud.

After a long silence Harry and his godfather looked at each other.

"Where should we start?"

"The beginning will usually suffice," was the suggestion of Remus, who was ever the logical one.

"But which beginning?"

"How can there be more than one beginning?"

"D-James, it's…complicated. I mean, there are at least two stories I could tell you about how we got here." That earned Harry a look of confusion.

"What Harry means to say is that it depends on how much detail you want. We could start with _our _childhood, or his_."_ Harry blinked in confusion. Was Sirius actually thinking this through carefully? Normally he was the one to act without thinking.

"Ours." All three of the men said

"We should probably sit down," he suggested for their sake, not his. Well, maybe it was partially for his sake

Lilly picked up Harry's tea cup and lead them through the hallway decorated cheerful muggle paintings and down the wooden stairs to the brightly decorated living room that was obviously decorated by Lily because it was too bright for James' taste. The only red came from the red recliner James had insisted on.\. With hesitation Sirius and Harry sat down next to each other for moral support.

Well, at least Sirius could take comfort in the fact that the only person this situation was more awkward for was Harry. At least Sirius had one person who he remembered being alive. Harry didn't have the chance to benefit from that. The Last time Harry saw Sirius he 'died'.

"Before we start, you should know that there are three kinds of wizards. Muggles are non magical. Muggleborns are magical children born into non-magical families. Purebloods come from all magical families. Half bloods are wizards who have a muggleborn parent and a pureblood parent. Many purebloods consider themselves to be superior to muggles (non-magical people). My parents, for example, were pureblood fanatics." Sirius snorted. "A dark wizard named Voldemort called himself the Dark Lord. Voldemort and his followers are either cowards or pureblood fanatics whose intention is to take over Britain. He was powerful. So powerful, in fact, that many people believe that he is immortal. Many people are so afraid of him that they fear to say his name. This was the world that we were born into James. You came from a pureblood family and so did I."

Remus and Lily raised their eyebrows in surprise. "Neither you or I were supporters. Your parents were more like parents to me than my own because I never got along with mine. Mine were obsessed with pure-blood Superiority. 'The most noble and ancient house of Black', hah! What's so noble about licking the boots of an insane wizard I'll never know. We met on the train to Hogwarts. Remus, you are a half blood werewolf, and Lily, you were a muggleborn whose friend was Sniv-Severus Snape. There was also a mediocre boy whose name was Peter Pettigrew on the train. Remus, James, Peter, and I were friends almost from the start. Peter needed someone to protect him for the better wizards and Remus needed someone who would accept him despite his, ah, _furry little problem_. We were the best of friends and the biggest group of troublemakers Hogwarts (the school) had ever seen. We called ourselves-"

"The Marauders." James chimed in.

"Yes, we were the marauders. That's why we had such a hard time convincing Lily to go out with you. We were horrible to others, and as loath as I am to admit it, we were particularly bad to Severus Snape."

Lily's face scrunched up in concentration as she was trying to remember something. "Severus…why does that name sound familiar?" Then she snapped her finger after a second. "Oh yes, Severus. We're still friends now, although we dated for a year in Secondary School-it didn't work out and we decided that we were better as friends. His last name is Snellings, though."

Both Harry and Sirius looked at each other and suppressed a laugh. Well, Harry suppressed a laugh and Sirius started chuckling. "I can hear the jokes now! Smellings!"

"Will you two ever grow up?" They gave Lily a look that Lily and Harry translated to mean 'in your dreams'.

Remus sighed impatiently. "Sirius whenever you feel the need to continue the story, please do so _before_ we turn grey."

"Where was I?"

"Snape," was Harry's succinct answer.

"Right…Maybe you should take it from here?"

"Um…okay…" For a minute Harry was unsure of what to say. He didn't know much about his parents-everything that he knew about them had been gleamed from snippets of comments from people who knew them. "Well, you teased Snape, and apparently M-Lily," he corrected himself, "Wouldn't stand for it, so she went out with you when you lightened up. Then you got married and had me. There was a prophecy saying that someone would be born at the end of the seventh month to parents who defied the dark lord three times that would be the Dark Lord's equal. Because of the prophecy you went into hiding."

"The Fidelius charm," Sirius murmured.

All three of the adults native to the dimension that Harry was in at present turned to Sirius. "Fidelius…it's related to the Latin word for loyalty, isn't it?" A sort of understanding lit her eyes. "You said that we were dead…does that mean that someone betrayed us?"

After a deep breath Sirius spoke. "Yes. The way the Fidelius charm works is to cast a complicated spell with the effect of only allowing a person called the secret keeper to speak the location of the place that's being protected. Originally I was supposed to be your secret keeper, but I thought that it would be too obvious because-"

"James and I are best friends." The other Sirius finished.

"Yes. At the time I had thought that…" He wouldn't make eye contact with Remus. "Where I'm from Remus is a werewolf and the dark lord had been trying to recruit them and we knew that there was a traitor so at the time seemed fairly obvious…"

"That I was the traiter."

"Instead I insisted on you making Wormtail-Peter-" He clarified, "your secret keeper. He betrayed us all because of his cowardice and gave away your location."

Harry took over. "I used to dream about it when I was little. He burst into the room and D-James told Lily to run and protect me. The he killed him and then went into the nursery." Harry looked at Lily. "He told you that if you gave me to him he'd spare you, but you didn't. Instead you shielded me from the killing curse. When you sacrificed yourself you activated magic that protected me."

No one moved an inch until Lily chose to break the stillness by engulfing him into a desperate hug. "My baby, my baby! Oh my baby boy, I'm sorry, so so sorry." As a mother nothing was more terrifying than the thought of your child having to grow up without you

Harry attempted to reassure her. "It's okay Mom. I've seen things that you can't even imagine. I've flown on a broom stick, live in an enchanted castle, and fought death eaters."

"You should be proud of him Lily. He's faced things that would break a weaker man."

Right then James had enough. "He's just a boy! He's not even sixteen yet! He shouldn't have to face things that would break a weaker man. He should be out playing sports or doing his homework!"

The adults cracked a smile at the expression on Harry's face. His eyes narrowed and his eyebrows creased, and his jaw was clearly set. It was pure James.

"I'm sixteen-I'm not a little kid anymore! You're right, I am still a teenager, but that doesn't mean that I can stand around and do nothing while the people I love are in trouble! Look Dad, I don't go looking for trouble. Trouble finds me! When you're stuck in a car surrounded by Giant killer spiders, or find yourself face to face with the dark lord you don't have time to think. When there aren't adults around I have to think and act on my own. If I have to die I'm not going down without a fight."

"Giant spiders?" Sirius hadn't heard that story

"Hagrid's pet." d

"Ah." They both knew that there didn't need to be further explanation on _that_ subject. Hagrid was Hagrid. His idea of cuddly was a three headed dog.

"Are you going to explain what that little speech was about?" The boy and his godfather looked at each other. Harry was imagining Molly's reaction and Sirius was imagining Lily's.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"That's probably for the best."

James nodded, "Fair enough." Harry visibly relaxed. His shoulders no longer were tall and tense. He slumped just the slightest bit. He looked like a normal teenager…one who had been through hell. As young as missing tension made him look, something in the boy's eyes was much older. Even as Harry relaxed he looked alert. It was strange seeing those qualities in a boy Harry's age.

"Are you boys hungry?" She looked pointedly at Harry and Sirius, "You two especially look like you need something to eat. You're too thin and you missed breakfast."

"That would be nice. Thank you Lily." They stopped and stared at him.

"Yeah, I am hungry." His stomach let out an especially large growl. "Thanks Mum."

Everyone stared at the pair. "What?"

"See James. It wouldn't hurt for you to show some manners every now and then. That goes for you too Sirius." He looked like he was about to say something, but Harry's Sirius spoke first.

Sirius looked at his almost reflection, remembering the way that he himself would have responded before Azkaban. "I'm sorry, it's just that I haven't had Lily's cooking for a very long time." A heavy, awkward silence fell upon the room.

"You'll have to forgive us, Harry. This is nearly unbelievable. If there weren't two of Sirius in the room and if you weren't so thin I'm not sure if we'd be able to believe any of this."

"It's okay. This is weird for me too-I never knew my parents, and I only met Sirius and Professor Lupin in third year. I used to fantasize about his before Hogwarts and now…"

"We're here." James whispered.

"Yeah."

A plate piled high with different kinds of sandwiches. They all took a sandwich, and she made a point of grabbing Harry two roast beef sandwiches. "Eat it all."

The Remus leaned over and whispered in his ear. "You'd better do what she says. Lily can be quite forceful when she wants to be."

Harry just nodded and took a large bite, consequentially choking on it.

"Are you okay?"

"Fine. I'm fine."

His godfather was obviously trying to hide and amused smile. "It would be rather sad, wouldn't it, if the boy who lived died by choking on a sandwich?"

Slightly embarrassed, Harry changed the subject. "Padfoot, what happened to you when you, you know…"

He sank back into the sofa a bit. "I think you know the answer to that. I woke up in other dimensions. First I stumbled into Hogsmead. I managed to stay hidden and listen into enough conversations to learn that everybody thought that I was the Dark Lord's Lieutenant."

Jaws dropped. "It shouldn't be that surprising. I _am _aBlack. My family has always had a tendency towards insanity. Apparently roles were reversed. Dumbledore and Grindelwald were called the Dark Lords, claiming that wizards should rule muggles for, 'the greater good'. Tom Riddle was head of the Order of the Phoenix. The order was barely alive. Dumbledore and Grindelwald were too bloody powerful together- It was a nightmare." A visible shudder went through his body. That's what would happen if Harry didn't defeat Voldemort. The idea of war made Harry sick, but what choice did he have? _Neither could live while the other survived…(OOTP) _

"The next one wasn't so bad. Everything was the same except that when my parents disowned me the Potters adopted me. They let me stay with them, although they made a point of giving me a room on the opposite of the house from my counterparts room. Something about two Sirius blowing up the house… I was sorry to leave without saying goodbye." He paused to think, "Then there was the one where Snape and Lily married."

James put an arm around his wife. "I'm glad that _my _Lily has better taste than that."

"Don't you mean that you're glad that you're the most stubbornly persistent man that I know?"

"It was disturbing. I may never get over the thought of little Snape Jr. running around…although he was kinda cute-he looked like a male version of Lily although he had his father's eyes, poor kid. You know what happened after that." He took a bite of his sandwich. "Wa bou you?"

"Swallow first, and then speak. For a Black you're showing a serious lack in refinement," his counterpart joked.

"What about you?" he corrected.

"What do you want to know? My parents were both unpleasant, Regulus works at some bank, James and I are police officers, Remus is a doctor, and Lily and Snellings are both pharmacists. Everything else is ordinary."

"What about me? What am I like?"

"He's a lot like his-your-father. Harry is very athletic and has a good sense of humor. He loves to read and does well in school. It must be Hermione's influence. His grades improved after meeting her." Lily smiled fondly. "He looks just like James at your age. He's even the same height…" She stopped suddenly.

James squeezed her hand. "Maybe whatever brought this Harry here took our Harry back to wherever he was from."

For some reason that comment hurt more than anything Malfoy had ever said about him. How could he fool himself into thinking that they loved him the way that they loved their son? He pushed that to the side. He hated seeing them upset. "I'm sure he's fine. He's probably at the Burrow with the Weasleys," Harry said in an attempt to comfort them.

"How do you know?"

"I went to sleep in my bed and woke up in his. We must have switched places." "What about me?" asked Sirius' counter-part.

"The veil. Maybe it has something to do with the magic of the veil that I lead me here. Eventually we'll leave and he'll come back. "

"So what now?" Sirius asked.

"I don't know. I guess we'll just have to wait and see." Harry hoped that they'd have to wait a while. A world where his parents were alive, Voldemort didn't exist, and he never watched Cedric or his godfather die. Who'd want to leave paradise?

* * *

Mean while at the Burrow…

Harry rolled over and glanced at the clock. It was too early to be out of bed. He shut his eyes again.

"Wakie Wakie Ronnikins and company! Mum wants you to downstairs for breakfast." Harry groaned and woke with up with three red-headed boys in the room. What were Ron and the twins doing in his room?

"Go away!" Ron threw a pillow at them.

In response the twins assaulted them with pillows. "What are you doing in my…this isn't my room! And you!" He pointed at them.

"What are you doing there?"

"Gred, I think we've broke him."

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you all enjoy! It's nearly 5,000 words, making it my third longest one-shot. This is an idea that I've had in my journal for several years and I finally got the inspiration to finish it. I plan on going back and editing it, so I apologize for any mistakes/rough parts.

-ForeverLily


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